Fox News anchor Lauren Green has come under fire for her attack on academic and scholar Reza Aslan on why, as a Muslim, he felt capable of writing a book about the life of Jesus.

The interview took place on the Fox News.com Spirited Debate, as host Lauren Green repeatedly questioned the motives guest Reza Aslan, a Muslim and author of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, had in writing a scholarly text about the historical Jesus Christ.

“I am a scholar of religions with four degrees including one in the New Testament and fluency of biblical Greek, who has been studying the origins of Christianity for two decades, who also just happens to be a Muslim,” Aslan said as he was subjected to repeated questioning about his own faith.

“It still begs the question though: why would you be interested in the founder of Christianity?” Green asked.

“Because it’s my job as an academic,” Aslan said. “I am a professor of religion, including the New Testament. That’s what I do for a living.”

As Green asked more direct questions about Aslan's motivations, the scholar got more upset at her line of questioning.

“But I do think it’s perhaps a little bit strange that rather than debating the arguments of the book, we are debating the right of the scholar to actually write it.”